Romance

Set in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, "A Green Chariot" is a drama about identity, belonging and romance. Yair (Vitali Freedland), a twenty-year-old Russian immigrant, yearns for acceptance as an Israeli, so he disconnects himself from his father and his secular Russian friends, finds a modern Orthodox girlfriend, and joins a religious/nationalist youth movement, Bnei Akiva. But on the eve of his wedding to Dafna (Daniela Wirzer), his world is upended and his new life is jeopardized. Rummaging through a package sent by his aunt, Yair, known in Russian as Sasha, discovers a crucifix. His father assures him that his late mother was thoroughly Jewish, but admits that his maternal grandmother was a Christian. For Yair, who has adopted Orthodoxy and is engaged to be married to an Orthodox woman, the revelation could unravel everything.

A group of obese people from the Israeli city of Ramla is fed up with their strict diet regime. But when Herzl, one of them, starts working as a dish washer in a Japanese restaurant, he is exposed to the world of Sumo through Kitano, the restaurant manager and a former Sumo coach in Japan. Herzl falls in love with the Sumo world and persuades Kitano to coach him and his obese friends in a sport and culture where their size is to their advantage. One by one, Herzl's friends leave their dieting club and discover the world of Sumo, where fat people like them are honored and appreciated. Through Sumo, they connect to themselves and their fat bodies, each one in his or her individual way.

Alex is a thirteen year old boy who is about to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah. Alex has typical Polish parents who work hard to make ends meet. On account of their difficult economic situation, they are compelled to share their apartment with a Persian tenant named Faruk that tries to fight his baldness by means of different creams. But when Alex falls in love with the new girl in his class, Mimi, his aunt Lola arrives in Israel from Poland to search for lost love. Alex falls for his aunt and she on her part gives him more than just maternal love. This film is notable for its careful reconstruction of the '50s, known as the Austerity period in Israel.

In Tel Aviv, the gloomy Ezra hires foreign workers without permits to build an addition to a homely block of flats, where his ex-wife Mali lives with her current lover Ilan. Ezra and Mali's young son Eyal hates the army and is AWOL, living among prostitutes and drug dealers. Gabi, a beautiful young woman who's a friend of Mali's, is carrying on an affair with Hezi, an older man insisting on secrecy. Hezi rents an apartment at the building for their trysts. Neighbors complain about the noise of their lovemaking and of the construction. Lives in this apartment complex revolve slowly one around another, and in Israeli society, "Everyone's out for himself".

Bruriah and her husband Rabbi Meir lived in the 2nd century C.E., at which time the Rabbis declared "women are light-minded". Bruriah, a most learned and intelligent woman, mocked their statement. In order to prove their justification, Rabbi Meir sent one of his students to seduce her. Bruriah was seduced and when she discovered that it had been planned by her husband, she committed suicide.

In the present day, a woman named Bruriah has been traumatized by a book her father wrote on the ancient story. She sets out to find one of the last remaining copies--but her husband Yaakov, scared that she may destroy the life he set up for his family, stands in her way...

Rachel Gerlik (Michaela Eshek), the widowed mother of two beautiful teenage daughters, who wants to join the founding group of a new religious settlement in the West Bank. She must first convince the acceptance committee that she is worthy, but without a husband finds it challenging. Her daughters feel alienated from her, especially her desire to move to the West Bank, and her daughter Tami (Hani Furstenburg) finds herself attracted to a boy named Rafi from a youth movement. But when an incident at a campfire spirals into malicious, untrue rumors about Tami, Rachel has to figure out how to save her daughters, save their future, and figure out how to move forward.

A notorious Casanova, Zidane happily leads a life unlike that of his two friends Omer and Uri who endure the agony of commitment - until a beautiful Colombian woman from Zidane's past pulls him into the romantic fray. Now, as the three men attempt to decipher the mysteries of women, they're forever reminded that love frequently offers up equal doses of happiness and misery in this lighthearted Israeli comedy.

A slice of life - day after day - in Haifa, where Moshe and Didi's marriage is on the rocks, his affair with his mistress is going downhill, and Moshe's angst about health, his parents, sex, communication, and business dominate his life. He has many problems, to say the least. Moshe's mother is Jewish, his father an Arab; his father may or may not sell ancestral land; his wife and mistress have lovers, one is a close friend; much of Moshe's surroundings seem under construction or in renovation. As he becomes entangled in his confusing family relations and divided ancestry, he finds himself put to the test in ways that change his ordinary existence into something far more complicated.

It is the height of summer and the reality show "His Heart's Choice" is just about to launch its third season. Zacky Reibenbach, the show's creator, knows that without a really good gimmick, there is no way he will repeat the success of the previous two seasons. Then he remembers his film student, Yehuda Konitz. Yehuda has been documenting the rehabilitation of his friend Eitan for the past three years after the latter went blind under strange circumstances during his military service. His unique rehabilitation process was developed by Yael, Eitan's personal trainer and Yehuda's girlfriend. Yael is Eitan's eyes, and with her he is a true phenomenon--exactly what Reibenbach is looking for. Yet when Yehuda accepts Reibenbach's offer of fifty grand to help his movie, in exchange for putting "the phenomenon and the trainer" on the show, he finds himself drawn into Reibenbach's deceptions, as well as the shady, glitzy world of reality television, and on a downward spiral towards a dead end...

Yigal is a divorced taxi driver who remains in close contact with his ex-wife and her new husband, in order to be close to his son. His personal dream is to visit Paris, but he is terrified of flying--even though it's only a five hour flight from Tel Aviv. Picking up his son from afternoon choir practice, Yigal slowly and tentatively becomes emotionally involved with his son's music teacher, an immigrant from Russia. At first glance, the two seem to be from different worlds - while Yigal is an uneducated taxi driver, the music teacher is worldly and educated. Nonetheless, they enjoy spending time together and a gentle and sweet relationship develops between the two opposites, which begins to grow more and more complex...

The saw mill owner Habermann is the biggest employer in his village and married to Jana, a young and beautiful Czech woman, who is half Jewish. Although Habermann is not interested in politics or ideology, he and his family will be steamrolled by the insanity of World War II.As he tries to save his wife, daughter and Czech workers from Nazi terror, he find himself facing his own tragedy in an unexpected way…

Based on real events surrounding the expulsion of Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia in 1945.

In this satirical cult-classic, a Reserves unit in the Israel-controlled Sinai is less than five miles from the Egyptian front lines. However, the Israelis are hardly concerned with the Egyptians, as half of the Reserve-niks are just happy to get away from their homes and essentially go camping in uniform, while the other half goes crazy in hilarious fashion. When one of the Israelis mistakenly wanders across the lines and is captured by an Egyptian patrol, a madcap rescue mission is hatched. Add to that some oil prospecting, a stowaway girlfriend, and an officer in need of some female attention, and all the ingredients for an enjoyable romp are there. Can Reserves duty in Israel (or anywhere) really be this fun?

In the heart of Jaffa, Reuven's garage is a family business. His daughter Mali and his son Meir, as well as Toufik, a young Palestinian, work there. No one suspects that Mali and Toufik have been in love for years. As the two lovers are secretly making their wedding arrangements, tension builds between Meir and Toufik, erupting in a tragedy that forces Mali to make a few horrifying decisions.

Rivka and Malka are two Orthodox Jewish sisters living in one of the most traditional communities in Jerusalem, and both are coming up against conflicts between their faith and their gender. Rivka and Meir have been married for 10 years, but are childless. Despite his real love for his wife, Meir feels he must follow tradition and take another, fertile wife. Meanwhile, Malka goes through with an arranged marriage, despite having fallen for a young student. When the realities of her enclosed world become clear to her, she is faced with a choice: to become just another womb, or to face leaving the only community she has ever known.

When Yolanda Moskowitz, a retired French teacher, wakes up in a hospital geriatric ward, she is convinced it must be a mistake. But the titanium plate in her hip confines her to a wheelchair and to a lengthy recovery. Nonetheless, Yolanda discovers a new life in the hospital. She develops a close relationship with Allegra, a solitary woman who is her roommate, and she meets Shaul, a former soccer player, who makes her feel certain emotions she thought had vanished from her life for good. Like a young woman in love, she does anything to get Shaul's attention. But when the time comes for Yolanda to return home, will she be forced to return to her life of loneliness?

When the Chinese woman working in Israel for Miri Kalderon, an Israeli flight attendant, is suddenly deported for overstaying her work visa, her lack of Hebrew-language skills makes it impossible for her to convince the Israeli authorities that she has a young child with her. Miri, twice-widowed because of the ongoing Arab-Israeli wars, has been going through the motions of living, somehow detached from a real connection to life itself. Her decision to help reunite the child—nicknamed "Noodle"—with his mother, now back in Beijing, ends up helping not just the boy and his mother, but herself--in ways Miri herself could not have expected.

This film is much more than just a beach movie; it depicts the struggle of individuals who are not ready to change and grow up. Gute (Uri Zohar) is an aging lifeguard, responsible for the Tel Aviv beach. With a few other eccentric characters, including his best friend Eli, he lives his life with no great goals or meaning. Pretty soon, he'll get slapped by his superior, rejected by a beach hussy, and ridiculed by a couple of teenagers and a beloved whore. Only then will he understand that the world is moving on, with or without him.

Pinhas and his mother are new immigrants from Russia. His mother barely makes a living working night shifts and devotes her spare time to an affair she has with a married man. On the third floor of their building lives a religious family. Pinhas is drawn to the warmth and unity that characterize them and meets a girl his age, and her older brother, who slowly introduces him to religion.

Clara is a 7th grade Russian emigre to this Negev town, and lives in a trailer on the edge of town. What makes Clara unique are her telekinetic powers, allowing her to predict the future. She can predict the answers to a math exam, the winning Lotto numbers, and even an earthquake! Yet she will lose her powers if she falls in love--and then she meets the anarchist rebel hunk at Golda Meir High School. She must choose between her powers and her true love, especially as an impending nuclear disaster approaches...

Two extraordinary love stories unfold 500 years apart. As modern lovers struggle against those who seek to separate them, a Christian soldier pursues a perilous romance with a young Jewish girl in the shadows of the Spanish Inquisition.

Danny Breznitz, in his late forties, is a detective in the Tel Aviv Police, and is hospitalized following a near-fatal car accident. His personal life is a mess: his marriage with his wife, Ruthie, is childless and one-sided, while his relationship with his mistress, Eva, is about to fall apart. Upon recovery, Breznitz is handed an insignificant murder case. In pursuit of the unknown killer, he discovers a culprit who confesses to the crime, but Breznitz doubts the man's guilt. Instead, he starts taking a tour of Israel's underground, which includes a prostitute turned hairdresser, a pimp who poses as a born-again Jew, and a homosexual artist who has been disowned by his parents. While at first the investigation goes nowhere, a shocking discovery may hold the key to solving the case...

Arik, a teenage boy growing up in Haifa in 1968, gets a job working for Yankele Bride, a matchmaker. Yankele, a mysterious Holocaust survivor, has an office in back of a movie theater that shows only love stories, run by a family of seven Romanian dwarves in the seedy area by the port. Yankele introduces Arik to a new world, built on the ruins of an old one. As Arik begins to learn the mysteries of the human heart through his work with Yankele, he falls in love with Tamara, his friend Beni's cousin. Tamara has just returned from America and is full of talk of women's rights, free love and rock and roll. The disparate parts of Arik's life collide in unexpected, often funny and very moving ways as he lives through a summer that changes him forever. Avi Nesher's latest film mixes comedy with drama as it tells a coming-of-age story unlike any you've ever seen before.

This offbeat musical directed by Avi Nesher follows a dozen members of the military entertainment troupe, whose mission is to entertain the Israeli Army following the Six Day War in 1967. Although the performers are not at the front lines, they, too, suffer tensions, learning to get along, making and breaking romances--all while competing to become the best performer in the troupe and to receive coveted television coverage.

A modern-day urban fairy tale about a 300 year old witch (Rozina Cambos) with a broken heart, and Assaf (Eyal Cohen), a boy who lives in the same apartment block in the heart of 1980's Tel Aviv. Assaf is a dreamer, a lost soul who falls in love for the first time with a new girl from his neighborhood, who barely notices him. Two decades later, when Assaf spots his first love in the street, he flashbacks to the experience of love and heartbreak, and the invaluable life lessons that he and an old witch taught each other about what it means to overcome a broken heart.

Menachem is a Yeshivah student and newly made commander of his own IDF unit. His dynamic right-wing spiritual leader, Rabbi Meltzer, who's West Bank Yeshivah Menachem attends, is the father of his love Michal. Although Menachem is a beloved student and commander, the rabbi has not chosen him to be the suitor for his daughter. Instead, the bone will be thrown to Pini, a brilliant Yeshivah sudent student. But the rabbi's daughter won't allow herself to be some prize. And when she scorns Pini, Pini begins hatching his his own secret plot. Complicating matters are the Shin Bet's caustic distrust of non-secular Israelis... and a nationalist plot that is brewing to blow up the Temple Mount.

A group of families emmigrates from India to Israel in the late sixties, seeking a better life in what they believe to be the first outpost of the West in Asia. To their surprise, they are sent to a new settlement in the middle of the desert, populated mostly by Moroccan Jews. The two cultures clash as the group tries to integrate into the community, and are faced by harsh realities. But despite the conflicts and prejudices, young love develops between two girls from opposite sides of the struggle. The film finds a perfect combination between humor and sentiment in a very real and very difficult situation.

This charming, entertaining film, full of warm humor and sentiment, swept the recent Israeli Awards in almost every category. Three parallel sories of love unfold in Israel during the Gulf War with Iraq, as the people retreat into thier homes and shelters to avoid the lethal scud attacks. Yana, a Russian immigrant abandoned by her husband, is pregnant and in debt, but when she moves into a flat with wedding photographer Eli and the two are forced into a sealed room from the fear of chemical weapons, sparks fly. At the same time, formal and businesslike Rosa finds love, while Alik and his wife learn the meaning of loving commitment and transform each other into better people.